The storm blew through last night.  Lots of rain and wind into the high 30’s but no damage at least around here.  Today was partly cloudy with occasional rain so we couldn’t finish the exterior varnishing, but I have the dorade boxes and some wood frame screens up in the workshop where I can varnish those without threat of rain.

Two other projects:

1. Lisa gave us a couple hard drives with movies and we spent some time downloading them to our drive so we have some “rainy day” entertainment.

2. Winch maintenance.  All the winches need some work, but the big cockpit winches haven’t been overhauled down to the gears in a few years.  It’s very time consuming, detail work, but cleaning out all the old grease and crud helps the winches last longer and work better.  We got the starboard one done.  Tomorrow the port side and maybe a couple others.  Depends on the weather which is supposed to be cloudy with some rain all weekend

The gears were pretty cruddy. I did the rough clean with a toothbrush in mineral spirits and then Ann used polish for the detail clean.

The trick is remembering where all the little gears, bearings and shafts go back together. I lay them on a towel on the deck in the same configuration as they come off.

Here's the brains of the operation. No, not me - the thing in my hand. This has four pawls with little tiny springs that engage the gears and let the winch operate at two different speeds. The trick is not to let the little springs fly out over the side when you're disassembling the thing.

Back in the water!  No more climbing up and down the ladder just to go to the toilet.  Yipes.  It was fun once, some years ago, but I’m over it (as is Ann).

So…we’re back in the water just in time for the remnants of a tropical cyclone to pass over us (not Passover).  Heavy rain should hit at midnight tonight and maybe some wind, but since we’re on an inland river, maybe not too bad.  On the coast they might get over 60 knots of wind and 25+ foot seas.

We’re happy to be back in the water.  We’re snugged up tight.  I put chafe gear on all the lines and tied anything that was loose to the deck.  More tomorrow…

Here's what we're looking at for 0600 tomorrow morning.

Always great to take that crane ride back to the water. Charisma's looking good with a new coat of bottom paint and waxed and buffed topsides. (Photo credit: Lisa Danger, Orcinius)

I think "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy" comes to mind. (Photo credit: Lisa Danger, Orcinius)

Setting up to back in the dock. (Photo credit: Lisa Danger, Orcinius)

Whew, back in - no crashing. Those of you who know Tayana know that backing in is not a trivial exercise. Especially with wind and a 1 knot river current. Many thanks to those who came to manage our lines! (Photo credit: Lisa Danger, Orcinius)

As I have written this the wind is starting to come up (2200 local time) and the barometer has dropped 15 mb since this morning!

Bring it on!  We tucked in and going to watch a movie tonight on board.  Possibly with some Scotch, Baileys and chocolate.  Yay for cyclones!